<Anchor> As a
result of the provisional counting at 9 pm yesterday (14th), there were 1,400 new confirmed cases, which is expected to be around 1,600 today. Authorities expect that the number of patients will increase further in the next week or so.
First of all, this is reporter Kim Yong-tae.
<Reporter> The number
of group infections related to department stores in Seoul has already exceeded 160.
[Citizen in their 20s: I am afraid, but I think I will go anyway. Because it is a large space.] The number of
confirmed cases in the metropolitan area including Seoul exceeded 1,100 for the first time.
The total number of confirmed cases jumped to 1,600, 230 more than the previous high, continuing an explosive increase.
The quarantine authorities, who were concerned about up to 2,300 people at the end of August, expected the number of patients to increase for the time being.
[Lee Ki-il/Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters First Controller: Many people are participating in the 4th step of distancing, but I think it will take at least a week for the full effect to appear.]
Increase in patients in their 20s, Delta Anxiety factors such as the spread of mutations are still there, but the weekend traffic in the metropolitan area has decreased by 3.8% compared to the previous weekend.
The 4th stage of distancing in the metropolitan area will be applied until the 25th, but after the 26th, the quarantine guidelines will be decided after observing until the beginning of next week.
The government also introduced a four-step follow-up measure that increased the on-site inspection of large distribution facilities such as department stores from once a week to five times a week and provided benefits to beaches with excellent quarantine.